Adventures in Calgary

Molly is getting more personality every day. She doesn't like to sit still at all. She's a SUPERFAST crawler and she is starting to walk around using furniture as support. This new mobility has led to some big falls but she seems to recover pretty quickly. She loves licking and smacking her lips and waving hello/good-bye. She's been sleeping a lot better lately. Last night she slept from 7 pm to 5 am and then went back to sleep after a quick feed until 8 am. It was great! I can't believe she's 8 months already. This week I have to contact EI to let them know when I'm going back to work and confirm my start date with Y&R. This week is also when we start introducing Molly to the dayhome. I'm sure she'll be fine with it because she is so social and loves playing with kids...I'm not so sure I'll be fine. I keep imagining myself sitting in the car outside the dayhome and crying until it's time to pick her up. Hopefully that won't be the case.

Yesterday Molly had her CT scan at the children's hospital. I was so stressed the night before. I had one bad dream after another...Not because I think anything is wrong with Molly - I just get so worked up when I don't know what to expect. Noel stayed home from work to come with us for the test. We got to the hospital really early and they took us in right away. I thought we'd be lead to another waiting room to wait - what else would we expect? But we were taken in for the test almost immediately. We also expected the test to be at least 30 minutes long...and we thought Molly might even need sedation for it. Wrong and wrong. The test was about 3 minutes long and no sedation at all. In and out - easy as anything! Molly was great. She laid down on the table and hardly squirmed at all. The nurse and I sang songs for her and then it was over. Much easier than the EEG. We won't get the results for a couple of weeks but once the test was over I felt so much relief.

Molly's dinners just keep getting bigger and bigger. Tonight she had beef, carrot, squash, zuchini, peach, pear, rice cereal, puffed rice and puffed wheat...And that's on top of breast feeding! Yet she's still underweight - tapeworm perhaps?

First, Nancy had to remind us that we had an anniversary coming up. We decided to celebrate early by upgrading our room at the Fairmont (Van airport) and splurging on a fabulous dinner. Our room was wonderful. The view was spectacular - mountains, ocean, runways. It was so relaxing and romantic - even with Molly around.

Then our real anniversary arrived and this time it was Noel's sister Michele who had to remind us! I guess our minds have been elsewhere lately. Noel made us a delicious steak dinner and even though we were home it was one of our best anniversaries yet.

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving in Whistler with Nancy, Elaine, Joseph, Scarlett, and Thomas. The condo was fabulous...and walking distance to the village. It was wonderful and strange to be with Nancy and Elaine and their babies! How did we all end up parents?!? Wasn't it just yesterday that we were dancing at the Sundance and eating at Ches's? Thomas is hilarious and he was great entertainment for Molly. Scarlett is wonderful too. I loved holding her and playing with her. Molly loved climbing all over her (I'm not sure that Scarlett enjoyed this much but she put up with Molly most of the time). Joseph cooked a fabulous Turkey dinner for us all. We even got to meet Nancy's sister Darlene's new beau. I'm not sure we made a great impression on him though - Noel and I were in fine form...talking about all sorts of politically incorrect things. If that didn't scare Darlene's man away, I think he can brave anything. The weather was superb. The hot tub was hot. The babies were amazingly well behaved. It was a stellar first family vacation for team Corkey-Flatters.

Today Noel and I took Molly to the new sick kids hospital for an EEG. She has been doing some strange head bobbing thing on and off for the last few months. It got a lot worse this past weekend when we were in Whistler so I ended up taking Molly to emergency on Wednesday afternoon in the hopes of getting some answers or tests done. After a couple of hours of waiting we finally got a referral to a pediatric neurologist...not a nephrologist (kidney doctor like our idiot GP referred us to by accident). It was a long day for us all. We got to the hospital for our 11 am appointment. Met with the doctor and then had to wait until 12:30 for the EEG. Unfortunately the tech didn't get back from lunch until 1 pm and the test takes about an hour so by the time we got the results it was already 3:30 pm. The EEG was pretty neat. Molly had 21 electrodes on her head and 2 monitors on her chest. She did not like getting any of it put on and then took a bunch off before we could even start the test. It's so strange...the tech gets Molly all worked up putting the electrodes on...then she expects Molly to just fall asleep for the test (not bloody likely)...then once I finally get her to sleep I have to wake her up so that she can look at stobes of different frequencies...then I have to get her to close her eyes while she's awake for the last part of the test. Needless to say Molly did quite a bit of crying today. I kinda wish we'd brought the camera because she looked so cute (and a bit pathetic) in her head bandages and wires. So the good news is that the EEG was normal! Next test is the CAT scan in a couple weeks. I can't even imagine how hard that one will be for her.

Pictures and description of our first family vacation (Whistler) will come soon.

My dad helped us build this flower box when he was here in the summer. I planted it with annuals this year - just so it would look colourful for Noel's family when they were visiting. For some reason my cosmos got GIANT. They didn't bloom much in the summer but they're making up for that now.

And just because every post should have some reference to Molly - she is making great fish faces these days where she sucks in her cheeks in a way only a toothless child can. FUN.

Yesterday we had our first open house playdate. I figured that with the weather getting worse it was time to start an activity that didn't cost anything and kept us warm. We had a great turnout. Tuesdays look like they're going to be lots of fun!

Molly has quickly moved from crawling to pulling herself up and attempting to walk. Time for more babyproofing!

My mom was here last week for another visit. Noel was supposed to be on the road for the week so mom said she'd come and help me with Molly. Turns out Noel didn't have to go away (YAY) so we all got to have a great visit. We even got to play some scrabble! Molly is a crawler extraordiare these days and while mom was here she started pulling herself to standing on the couch, coffee table, TV stand, stools, etc, etc. I don't think she knows that she's not supposed to be walking yet.

In other news, we've moved Molly into her own room. Moving the couch and table was easy...the crib not so much. Noel and Brent worked at it all day long (or at least it felt that way). It's back together with only one stripped screw head but now that the mattress is in the lowest position (Molly is still loving standing in her crib) the crib rail won't go up and down. This isn't that big a deal but it means we can't use the crib as our change table anymore. GRRR.

These are some pictures we took at Gymboree this week. It was great having Gram Cookie around for swimming and Gymboree and trips to the park. Maybe we'll be able to talk Grampa Jim into coming to Gymboree at Christmas!